The Memo
by Grasshopper1
Summary: Grissom must choose someone to send to dayshift. Who will he choose and what are the consequences?


Title: The Memo  
  
Author: Lisa Disclaimer: I don't own them. There I said it! Rating: PG13 Spoilers: Season 3 (small ones) Note: I hope you like it.  
  
Memo To: Gil Grissom From: Conrad Ecklie  
  
RE: Staff Reassignment  
  
Due to a the recent retirement of one of dayshift's CSIs and the resignation of another, I have been authorized reassign one of the night CSIs to dayshift until a suitable replacement can be found, which could take some time. I am leaving it up to you to decide which of your people you would wish to reassign. Whoever you chose should be able to start day shift in 2 days.  
  
Conrad Ecklie, CSI supervisor  
  
Gil Grissom looked at the memo in disgust. He sat at his desk and had read it over and over. He couldn't believe that Ecklie wanted one of his people. His team worked so well together, which is exactly what he told Ecklie when he had called to tell him that it would be a cold day in hell before he made one of his people work under him. And of course, Ecklie had gotten great satisfaction out of telling him that this directive had come from the sheriff himself, and that there was nothing that he could do about it. Grissom leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He wondered how in the world he was going to pick someone. It was like making a sacrifice to appease some angry god.  
  
Grissom took a pad and a pencil out of his desk drawer and wrote:  
  
NICK SARA WARRICK CATHERINE  
  
He had to choose and he had to do it now. The rest of the team would be in for the graveyard shift in less than an hour. Just as Grissom always did, he analyzed all of his options.  
  
Sara- Sara had only been there two and a half years, and he hated to throw her to Ecklie. She was a very good CSI, and one of the smartest people he knew, but she also wore her heart on her sleeve and Ecklie would eat her alive because of it. He had always felt the need to protect Sara, even when she was his student. He didn't know if he could stand to look into her face and tell her that he had chosen her.  
  
Nick- Nick was a strong CSI and a real asset to the team. He had a different way of looking at things and no matter what was thrown at him he could handle it with professionalism. And even though Grissom corrected him a lot, Nick had learned the job a lot faster than almost any CSI Grissom had ever seen. He also enjoyed Nick's twisted sense of humor.  
  
Warrick- Warrick had always been a wild card. He took a lot of liberties and went out on his own a little too much sometimes, but he was very passionate. He didn't stop until he had exhausted all avenues in solving a crime. Warrick had earned Grissom's trust and sometime he felt like Warrick understood him better than anyone on the team.  
  
Catherine- Catherine was the next senior CSI. Grissom knew that there wasn't anything that Catherine couldn't do if she set her mind to it. She was his people liaison. Grissom wasn't good with people, but Catherine was and she always played interference for him. Catherine, too, was smart and her confidence made you want to follow her to the end of the Earth. Catherine was his right arm.  
  
Grissom looked at the four names on the paper again. He only looked up when he heard the others come in and head for the break room. He knew that they would all be there waiting for him to give them their assignments. He got up and pick up the file folders that contained the case files that they had to work on that night and headed for the break room.  
  
Around the small table, the other four CSIs sipped their coffee not knowing what fate that was about to befall one of them.  
  
"Well, all I know was that if I had tuned on the ol' Stokes charm that Kimberly would be going out with me instead of Chris Roberts. He just got to her before I did. Those dayshift people get all the luck," Nick said with a smirk as Grissom walked into the break room.  
  
"So, Nicky does that mean that you want to be transferred to dayshift?" Grissom asked, kind of hoping that Nick would make this decision a lot easier for him.  
  
"Oh, no." Ecklie is not my favorite person in the world," Nick answered back in protest.  
  
"Well, now that you bring the subject up..Due to some recent personnel changes on dayshift, they are two people short. They need someone from night shift to fill in for a while and they are not sure how long it's going to be," Grissom told them without trying to betray how he felt about the request. "So do we have any volunteers?'  
  
Sara, Warrick, Nick, and Catherine looked at each other, none of them wanting to "volunteer".  
  
"So, you mean that one of us has to go, no matter what?" Sara asked nervously hoping that she would not be the one to have to go.  
  
"Yes, this directive came down from the top. They don't want it to look like either one of the teams are understaffed. That could be construed as a weakness in court," Grissom said matter of factly.  
  
"So, it seems like none of us are jumping at the chance to work with Ecklie. What now?" Catherine asked curiously, pushing a lock of blond hair from her face and looking directly into Grissom's eyes, trying to read them.  
  
Grissom smiled at Catherine, "Well, now I have to choose someone to go."  
  
"Come one Gris, Ecklie's just trying to stick it to you. He knows that you don't want to have to be the one to send one of us to his shift," Warrick chimed in, getting more and more pissed off by the minute.  
  
"I have been through all of this with Ecklie. I know what he is trying to do and who ever goes ought to be prepared for Ecklie's maneuvers. This isn't easy," Grissom said looking at all of his CSIs.  
  
"So, who's it gonna be?" Nick said, getting to the point.  
  
Grissom looked around and finally said, "Catherine....You finish out the night with us and tomorrow you have off, so that you can start dayshift Thursday morning."  
  
The rest of the group looked stunned. Catherine was the last person that they had expected him to pick. They all knew that lately he and Catherine had not been as close as they had once had, but it still shocked them. They sympathetically looked at her. She looked stunned herself and a little hurt. Catherine was a very strong woman, but she looked like she was on the verge of tears.  
  
"Luck of the draw, folks. Luck of the draw," she said trying to be nonchalant. "Well, I guess we'd better get to work. I'm here on borrowed time, remember."  
  
Grissom knew that she was hurt. He wanted to explain things to her, but not here. Not now. He just looked at her, but she looked away. "Nick, Sara, and Warrick you take the double shooting at the MGM Grand. Catherine, you and I have the stabbing at the All Shook Up Wedding Chapel."  
  
Sara took the DB file from Grissom and filed out of the room with Nick and Warrick, who were arguing over who was going to drive, in tow. None of them knew what to say to Catherine, so they didn't say anything at all. As much as each of them loved Catherine, they were all happy that they were not the ones who had to go.  
  
Catherine stayed behind with Grissom. There was an uneasy silence between them.  
  
"Are you ready to go," she said. She was being all business and Grissom respected her feelings and said, "Yeah."  
  
"I have to get my jacket. I'll meet you by the Tahoe in ten," she said as she walked out of the room, leaving Grissom alone to wonder if he had done the right thing.  
  
Catherine briskly walked to the locker room and opened her locker. She started to reach for her black leather jacket, when one of the pictures stuck in her locker caught her eye. It was a picture of all of them together at the Policeman's Ball last year. She was standing by Grissom and he had an arm around her waist. Things had changed a lot in a year. Their fifteen year friendship had taken a hit. He had pulled away from her and after Eddie's death she had become withdrawn from him as well. She looked at all of the smiling faces in the picture. Grissom had said that her reassignment was just a temporary move, but she wasn't so sure. Catherine grabbed her jacket and closed her locker door and headed out to meet Grissom.  
  
Grissom had the Tahoe waiting. Catherine hopped in and he silently drove through the streets of Las Vegas. They finally reached the wedding chapel with the neon Elvis swiveling his hips on top. They moved through the crowd of men and women dressed in tuxes and wedding dresses to the scene where they found a woman laying at the alter with a blood-soaked wedding dress on and a groom sitting on the front pew with his head in his hands. The officer on the scene told them what had happened. The bride and groom were just about to say their "I do's" when another woman in a wedding dress had barged down the aisle with a knife and had stabbed the bride, and had run back out the front door.  
  
"Some people just weren't meant to get married," Grissom remarked. Catherine wondered what he had meant by the comment, but she went to work collecting evidence. Grissom and Catherine collected fingerprints and DNA samples among other assorted evidence. Then, they helped the police question some of the witnesses outside.  
  
When they were finished, they gathered their equipment and headed out to the Tahoe. The sun was slowly starting to come up over the desert horizon and after everything was put away, they climbed in the SUV and headed back to the lab to process the evidence.  
  
Grissom glanced at Catherine, "Cath, I want you to know that I..."  
  
"Grissom, you don't need to explain. I understand. You had to pick someone and you just happened to pick me."  
  
"I knew that you could handle Ecklie. You are the most experienced CSI that I have and ..."  
  
She just stared at him. She really didn't know why she was upset. It wasn't as if he was firing her. She could deal with working with Ecklie, but it just hurt to think that he didn't need her around. She had turned down promotions and other jobs to stay with this team. To stay with him. He was the one who had helped her become a CSI and he had been there all of those nights when she was hiding from a drunken Eddie.  
  
"Catherine, are you listening to me?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"I have been explaining things to you."  
  
"I said that it doesn't matter. I understand."  
  
"It matters to me."  
  
They pulled into the parking lot of the CSI headquarters. He found a parking spot and turned off the engine. Catherine was staring blankly out the windshield. Had he known how she would have reacted, he never would have chosen her. Grissom saw the sadness in her eyes. He put his had to her cheek and she looked at him. He was making her feel things that left her shaken and she had to get out of the truck. "Let's get this evidence inside. Give Greg something to do," she said as she opened the door and went around to the back of the Tahoe. Grissom followed her and the two CSIs silently carried the evidence into the lab and gave it to Greg. Before Grissom could say anything further, Catherine had walked out of the DNA lab. He stepped out of the room just long enough to see her walk out the door of the CSI headquarters.  
Catherine listened to the phone ring for the hundredth time that day. She always looked at the caller id and saw that it was always the same person, Gil Grissom. She wanted to talk to him, to let him know what she was feeling. He had become more distant over the past few months and now he was practically shutting her out of his life entirely, because his work was his life.  
  
For the rest of the day, Catherine straightened up the house and ran a few errands. She would have to get used to an entirely different routine. It would be a big adjustment. She was used to sleeping during the day. Even when she was stripping, she worked at night and slept during the day. She looked at the clock. It was 3:00. Lindsay was staying the night at a friend's house. She usually didn't let Lindsay sleep over on a school night, but it was her best friend's birthday, so she had relented. Catherine lay down on the sofa and decided to take a nap. She was tired of thinking.  
  
Catherine woke to the sound of someone knocking on her door. She opened her eyes and looked at the clock on the wall, 8:15. She couldn't believe that she had been asleep for five hours. She slowly rose from the couch and went to the front door and looked out the peep hole. It was Grissom. Catherine leaned her head against the cool door. He was the last person that she wanted to see tonight, but she opened the door anyway.  
  
"Uh, Grissom, you overshot headquarters by about 8 miles," she said.  
  
"I'm exactly where I want to be. Can I come in?" he asked not sure why he was there himself.  
  
Catherine opened the door and gestured for him to come in. As he entered the living room, he noticed that she was only wearing a long t-shirt. Catherine saw him look at her shirt and said, "I'd better go change."  
  
"You don't have to. Frankly, Catherine, I've seen you in less," he said, not thinking how it might sound.  
  
"What do you want Grissom," she asked as she sat back down on her couch.  
  
"I've been trying to call you all day."  
  
"I've been busy."  
  
"Catherine, I wanted to let you know why I transferred you to days," Grissom said as he sat down next to Catherine on the sofa. He had sat in that same exact spot many nights before when he would come over to watch a movie with Lindsey and Catherine.  
  
"I have already told you it's ok," she said.  
  
"When I got the memo from Ecklie saying that I had to send someone to dayshift, I fought it, but there was nothing I could do. I thought about who I would send and it came down to you and Warrick," he said uncomfortably. "I knew that either one of you could handle Ecklie without decking him or letting him get to you, and I ended up choosing you because of a very selfish reason," Grissom said as he put his arm on the back of the couch so that his fingers were just touching her shoulder.  
  
"I'm not sure I understand," she said, still confused by his last comment.  
  
"I love you, Catherine," he said, running his had over her shoulder and up her neck to her cheek.  
  
Catherine looked at him. She was speechless. Grissom had just told her that he loved her.  
  
"I thought that maybe that would make things easier for me. For the last several months, I have been gradually losing my hearing. I have the same disease that my mother has. I knew that if anybody was going to catch onto my secret that it would be you. I didn't want anyone to know."  
  
Catherine couldn't believe what she was hearing. Grissom loved her. He was losing his hearing....It was almost too much to take. Catherine sprang across the couch and into Grissom's arms. She was crying and she couldn't stop. Grissom ran his hand through her blonde hair and let her cry. It felt so good just to hold her. After the distance between them recently, he had begun to wonder if she would ever be in his arms. He still wondered if she could ever love him back.  
  
Catherine hung on to Grissom for dear life and when she finally stopped crying, she raised her head from his shoulder and looked into his eyes. She surprised him by smiling and she placed a gentle kiss on his lower lip. Grissom's puzzled look spoke volumes.  
  
"I don't care about any of it. The job is just a job. Your hearing, well, we will deal with that later. But you, I want to deal with you now," she said. She was straddling his lap now and she gently pulled him to her. Grissom smiled just as she kissed him again, this time with more passion. He felt her in his soul and he knew that no matter what ever happened between them that he would carry her there forever. Grissom stood up with Catherine him his arms and carried her to the last room down the hall. He gently put her down and looked into her eyes. This time it was Grissom who seared her lips with his kiss.  
  
"Gil, what about your shift?" she asked breathlessly between kisses.  
  
"I gave it to Warrick," he answered.  
  
Catherine smiled, "You knew all along what would happen here tonight."  
  
Grissom returned her smile, "Well, I had hoped."  
  
She kissed him again and removed his jacket at the same time. His shirt went next and Catherine ran her hands through the hair on his chest. She felt euphoric and it was better than any high that she had ever been on.  
  
Caught up in her beauty, Grissom started to undo the buttons of Catherine's shirt with out ever leaving her mouth. Her shirt, followed by her jeans fell to a heap in the floor. She stood before him in her red silk panties and a matching bra, but before long those too where on the floor. Grissom gently laid Catherine on the bed and began kissing her warm flesh. Catherine moaned as Grissom kissed her in all of the right places. Quickly, he removed the rest of his clothing, and he cupped Catherine's face in his hands and said, "Beauty does not begin to describe you."  
  
Grissom once again laid Catherine back on the bed and started making love to the woman who had been in his dreams every day for the last fifteen years. A brief thought crossed his mind that he had been very close to losing her, but looking into her eyes, he knew that would never happen.  
  
Grissom brought Catherine to the peak several times before, together, they finally succumbed to the height of their passion and they lay in a heap in her bed, satisfied for the moment. Grissom had gently made love to her in a way no man ever had and she had felt him not only in her body, but in her mind and her heart. There were a lot of obstacles ahead of them, but she knew that with him by her side that she could face anything, even Ecklie. 


End file.
